Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (12 page)

He regained consciousness slowly,
discovering pulsing pain coming from three parts of his body: his
hip, his leg, and his arm. He could see them as though sensing with
his framework systems, which were partially disabled every time the
mini electromagnetic pulse rounds his captors shot him with while
he was unconscious went off.

Jake was also keenly aware of the fact that
he’d just recovered from death. The people who took him damaged his
brain badly enough for his backup systems to load all of his
memories back into a freshly constructed one, and from what he
could tell, they got it right for the first time.

He’d never been aware of his framework
systems before, never had control, but he could feel everything.
After a particularly painful pulse, he concentrated on forcing his
working framework systems to draw power from the devices. It took
more effort than he’d ever put into anything to think through the
pulsating rounds, through the convulsions, but after a few seconds
the shocks began to diminish.

They were down to almost nothing when he
started to pretend that he was still convulsing, faking a twitch
fit every three seconds.

He opened his eyes to slits and observed.
One man was sitting right next to him, holding an automatic rifle
across his lap. Two more were in the front of the shuttle, and
another was in the rear. Jake was on the floor in the middle. The
dim shuttle was crowded with supplies from the Enforcer.

The framework had finished absorbing all the
energy from the rounds, and it offered him a new option: to use the
remaining material to build something. As soon as he thought about
a high-range sub-dermal communicator, his body began generating
thousands of nanobots internally.

He faked one more twitch, and satisfied that
his captors didn’t notice anything strange, he decided on his next
action. Jacob waited three seconds, then, instead of faking a
twitch, he jerked towards the man sitting beside him and yanked his
rifle out of his hands.

He fired five rounds at the guard in the
rear, scoring three hits to his face. The faceplate of the less
durable crew vacsuit broke, but he was still alive when Jake shot
him twice more.

Stronger,
Jake thought as he brought
the butt of the rifle around and smashed the rifleman in the head.
Framework materialisers began working, and Jake could feel
something changing. A second later he had the answer – they were
causing a shift in his muscle density and size, suppressing pain as
the work began.

Jake grabbed the struggling rifleman by the
back of his hood and hauled him out of his seat, tripping him to
the floor between him and the cockpit. “Do you want to live?” Jake
asked through his teeth as he pointed the rifle at the man’s
head.

“God dammit!” shouted one of the men up
front as he turned around, drawing his sidearm. It was another slug
thrower, possibly loaded with the same disabling shells that Jacob
had been shot with before.

Jake opened fire on the copilot, raking him
with rounds from his hand to his shoulder. He was alive, saved by
his vacsuit, but he’d dropped his sidearm. The rifleman on the deck
between them tried to sweep Jake's feet out from under him, but he
recovered at the last moment.

Jacob had enough, and stepped on the
rifleman’s neck, feeling more physically powerful than he could
ever remember. Muscles tightened like thick cords drawn on heavy
winches. Jake braced his hand against the low ceiling of the craft
and looked at the man underfoot.

The rifleman stared back in horror, trying
to push Jake’s foot off his throat as it was forced down. “You’ll
remember how this feels for the rest of your life, just like I
remember how it feels to die.”

The hardened vacsuit protected the man’s
neck, but only to a point. The framework system finished augmenting
and improving Jake’s body, and with new strength he crushed through
the vacsuit with a loud pop, then the man’s neck and spine with a
wet crunch. Emergency stasis might save him, but it was never a
sure thing.

Jacob turned his hateful glare towards the
copilot with a twitch that made the man flinch. “You can take your
punishment now, or in front of witnesses,” Jake told him.

The copilot raised his hands and nodded. He
was joined by the pilot, who quickly took in the scene in the cabin
before saying: “with witnesses.”

Eve had eaten, washed, and completed other
human tasks. Lina insisted, getting in the way until Eve gave in.
The little woman was insufferable, and always close at hand.

"What else is there to know?" Eve asked
herself as she entered a media room, something she didn't need
before. It was a circular space with seating for about eight in the
middle.

"About what?" Lina asked.

"I was talking to myself," Eve snapped.
Using her uplink to the database of the Overlord II didn't feel
right somehow. She could read detailed reports at an incredible
pace, but when it came to viewing visual recordings, she was
limited by what her primitive eyes could process. Lina suggested
they adjourn to the media room so they could watch the collection
of holographic records in comfort. Eve relented out of fear that
the woman would make an issue of it until she complied anyway.

Eve sighed and sat down beside Lina on the
circular centre seat. "I've already developed a framework copy of
someone using the same formula that was utilised when Jacob Valance
was created. His name was Beaudric, and because I played on his
emotions using the personal history we implanted in him, it worked
perfectly."

"What happened to him?"

"Someone hijacked my body and convinced him
that he should assassinate the Child Prophet."

"But nothing's happened to the Child
Prophet. He was preaching just yesterday."

Eve couldn't believe that she had
momentarily forgotten that there was an android walking around
pretending to be the Child Prophet. She reminded herself to ask
Hampon why they couldn't just replace the clone, and why he made
one for himself in the first place. It would have been much easier
to create a framework instead.

Lina's clearance level didn't allow her to
discover that Hampon was a fake, even though it was almost as high
as it could be. His last sermon addressed the enemies of the Order
of Eden, and how they threatened their quest for purity. "I see,"
was all Eve offered in response. "Then Beaudric was not successful.
I'm glad," she reinforced the lie mechanically.

"So, you were able to make your own Jonas
and you're wondering why General Hampon doesn't see it as finished
work?"

"Exactly," Eve replied, surprised that Lina
had caught on. She called up the recordings she wanted. "It has
something to do with this limiter chip, I think. I couldn't see
these records before, they were isolated from available storage.
Since this section of the ship blocks all wireless signals and
isn't connected to the rest of the Overlord, I couldn't get
access."

"We see a great deal within the inner
chambers of the Order. It is one of the gifts a Senior West Watcher
enjoys. Our discipline and respect is demonstrated by our
silence."

"I see," Eve muttered. "I should learn more
about your discipline."

"I'd be happy to show you," Lina offered
enthusiastically.

"It would be faster if I read it myself."
Eve summoned the record most viewed by Hampon, Collins, and Meunez.
It was seven years old. She was mystified at the image that
appeared around them. Two identical Jonas Valents sat across a
simple metal table from each other in a small room.

Her deception with Beaudric, ensuring that
he thought he was the only one, was key to recreating someone as a
framework being. Why they would expose a framework to his original
was beyond her. The record stated it was the fourteenth time the
copy of Jonas Valent had been imprinted. It was the fifth time
Jonas had met his double.

Eve started the playback and watched as the figures
came to life.

"I'm not the original," the one on the right
said. "Pretty good copy, though. I was really convinced for a
minute there."

"It's been the same every time. They hit the
reset switch, re-scan me, burn whatever they're looking for into
your head and bring you back," replied the one on the left. The
pair seemed more amused than anything. Their heart rates were
reading as calm.

"What's the point?"

"I'm convinced it's the most expensive form
of torture ever invented. Then again, I don't mind your company.
The repetition might get to me after a while, though. What was it
that Minh used to say?"

"If variety is the spice of life," started
the copy.

"Then redundancy is a kitchen filled with
endlessly boiling pots of noodles."

The pair laughed. She felt she was watching
an out of sync mirror. There was something unsettling about seeing
Jonas - the most well known terrorist in the galaxy - doubled.

"Why are you still here? No chance to
escape?"

"I've had a few chances," said Jonas to his
doppelgänger slyly.

"You're protecting Freeground."

He nodded. "Break the deal and Vindyne
starts pointing the big guns towards home."

"So we're down to what, passive resistance?
I've only been awake a few minutes and I'm already pissed we're
still here. You've gotta be about ready to rip your hair out."

"Freeground doesn't need Vindyne's full
attention. If I can slow them down by taking my meds and sitting
here, then that's what I'll do."

"Well, I don't have to sit here like a lab
stooge," the copy declared. "I have an idea."

"That's new."

"Maybe I'm a little smarter than the
others," the copy said with a shrug. "Anyway, I know if I were
sitting where you're sitting, I would only want there to be one of
me. Nothing feels right anyway, so..." The copy closed his
eyes.

"What's the idea?"

"I can feel..." The duplicate paused a
moment, searching for the right words, "how my flesh is connected.
It's like a name on the tip of my tongue. If I can only remember
it, I'll be able to take complete control."

"Seriously?"

"There it is. I can feel where the memories
were burned in. Nice knowing you, Jonas," said the copy as he began
to concentrate harder.

"Remember the last thing my father said to
me?"

"Don't get all sappy on me, now. I'm just
another Vindyne product."

"Well, if there's one thing you should
remember, it's what he said."

"Thanks, now that's the first thing I'll
forget." He gripped the edge of the table, white-knuckled and
gnashing his teeth. "Here we go."

The door burst open and men in Vindyne
uniforms grabbed the copy, injecting him with a sedative. The
copy's heart rate spiked instead. It only lasted a moment, but
apparently it gave him enough time to accomplish his goal. Moments
later - after the copy fell into unconsciousness - Hampon entered
the room with a high resolution scanning tool in his hand. He still
looked healthy, just beginning his decline.

After a moment of scanning the copy's head,
Hampon dropped the scanner. "He did it himself. He wiped his own
memory clean. There's nothing but trace fragments left and they're
degrading," he said to one of the walls. Collins was watching from
behind it.

The recording ended and Eve sat back. "He
took complete control," she concluded aloud. "But how can he remain
in the condition he's in for so long when he can just start
modifying himself? No one can remain intact with that kind of
self-access. You could dream that your heart stops beating, and the
connection could make it happen. A bout of paranoia or fear could
bring on a physical attack, which would be lethal if it wasn't
caught in time."

Hampon's younger self reappeared in front of
them. Eve knew Hampon was controlling the hologram from his central
chamber. She didn't blame him for using a younger, healthier image
to communicate. "That is why the Jonas project was so important.
Something in his subconscious mind was keeping the framework
stable, helping him direct the control he had and release it when
it could cause harm. We theorised that it was a strong self-image,
perhaps a level of mental health that was rare, or any number of
other factors, but we never found out for certain. Our trials with
Wheeler discounted the theory that there was something in their
early Freeground training that instilled what they required at a
young age. After another year of probing, we still had
nothing."

"So you allowed him to be rescued by Alice,"
Eve replied. "To see how long he would remain stable in the
wild?"

"No. We could have done that in a controlled
environment. We wanted him to evolve. It was impossible for us to
re-imprint Jonas' memories, so we installed knowledge of medicine,
engineering, combat, and other modules and let Meunez leak his
whereabouts. For reasons of his own, he needed a way to find out
where Alice was, and he would be allowed to pursue her after the
copy of Jonas was rescued."

"Has he evolved since?"

"The only record of him exhibiting direct
control over his framework body is from Pandem, when a long time
associate, Ayan Rice, was mortally wounded. The backup chip in his
neck had already managed to bypass whatever was preventing the
framework from being implanted with memories. It was installing
Jonas Valent's memories, so we assume it was an emotional response,
instinctive."

"I can't find any record of you creating
frameworks with psychological modifications that were made to match
subject four. Did you ever try?"

"Yes. The results were unpleasant."

"Show me."

The image of Hampon was replaced with a
coffin-like box featuring a framework skeleton. The empty sockets
of its shiny silver skull seemed to stare at them until it was
activated. The materialiser system built into the framework built
the flesh from the bone outward, inspiring a gasp from Lina. She
cringed and uttered, "oh my God," from behind a hand covering her
mouth.